Writer Poll: Are We in a Golden Age of Writing?

Esquire recently published a piece called "The Golden Age for Writers," which argues that writers have no idea how lucky they are to live in these times of plenty for all things surrounding the written word.

Evidence cited for this claim includes new blockbusters coming out this year by powerhouse writers like Salman Rushdie and Zadie Smith, the fact that J.K. Rowling is a billionaire, and the way Fifty Shades of Grey has swept the world. In addition, publisher revenues are up, and there is more excellent long-form writing available to more people than ever before. The crux of the piece: "Literary circles have been so full of pity for so long that they can't accept the optimistic truth: We're living in a golden age for writers and writing."

Did Esquire miss something major in their relentlessly rosy assessment? Or is it time for everyone to stop howling about the death of the written word? We decided to go straight to the source and ask our vast network of hard-working writers to weigh in.

The positive
I totally agree. The article didn’t even touch on our ability to put out our own ebooks at will and sell them on Amazon, one of the largest search engines online. Writers now are truly blessed!
—Carol Tice

Yes, everything is going digital but websites can't function without words. I'm constantly approached by businesses looking for words for their social media, blogs, or websites. Marketing copywriting and social media writing can earn you a steady income while you focus on passion projects on the side. There are many writers (like Diablo Cody, Amanda Hocking, and Kelly Oxford) who found success through social media and self-publishing. There are few barriers holding us back. We can market and publish ourselves, which brings an insane amount of opportunity for writers.
—Aubre Andrus

I think we are at the beginnings of a golden age for writers due to the proliferation of paths by which writers can get their work in front of readers: print on demand, partner publishing with companies like Greenleaf Book Group, funding via sources like Kickstarter and PubSlush, direct-to-ebook publishing via the Kindle store or through companies like BookBaby, and so on. For ghosts, more paths to publishing means more people writing books and more quality work for us. Sure, doing all your own marketing is a lot of work, but since when was being a successful writer not a lot of work? I think this is a great time to be a writer, so long as you're entrepreneurial.
—Tim Vandehey

We are witnessing a resurgence for authors as we have grappled with and figured out ways to take advantage of new technologies and the Internet. As a ghostwriter, my business is certainly increasing. Yes, I too suffered through the doldrums of believing our industry and our very lives were heading over our own fiscal cliff. But all the way back in 1995, my MFA writing professor announced that we students were getting into the writing business just as it was dying. Perhaps people perpetually make these claims to discourage others, to thin out the herd.  
—Alex Dahlberg  

Certainly the availability of written works in electronic form and new advances in self-publishing are both good for writers. But the Internet and social media have enticed regular people (not professional writers) to do much more writing than ever before. Vast numbers of people are writing more than ever, because they have the motivation that every English comp instructor has struggled for so many years to provide: to write about something you know and care about and have some aim or purpose with regard to the reader. The world is now one big writing workshop! 
—Alan Perlman, PhD


The dubious
Content is still king, but all of us who deal in content—one way or the other, in any venue—are trying to figure out the new rules of the game. And we have to start from the position that even if we do figure out the rules today, they will be very different in a year’s time. So yes, there are more outlets, but we face a lot more complications and the road map isn’t clear.
—Al Emid

I agree with the premise on one side: There are now, thanks to the Web, an infinite number of outlets for anybody who wants to express an idea or tell a story. On the other side, while I see that for authors who hit it out of the park, there is more visibility to be had, a larger audience of readers, and more money to be made than ever, the question is, is this not a zero-sum game? I think the long-term answer is going to be that writers will become entrepreneurial and learn to use the Web and other tech to promote and distribute their own work. But in the interim, as with every other media business, writers will face more suffering before it gets better.
—Robert Chandler

I do not "howl self-pityingly" about "the death of the written word"; I've put two daughters through college as a freelance writer. However, the Esquire view is just nutty. Writers today are expected to produce work for close to nothing! But the good news is that, because of the enormous demand for content to fill digital media, it is much easier today to get some stories published and have a bunch of published clips to show.
—Steven Flax

Yes, developments in technology, blogging, and social networking have made it simple for anyone who shares a thought or a comment to become a "writer." Does that make it a golden age for writing, though? This is doubtless a time of great quantity, but what about quality? I believe we should aspire to a golden age of literacy, which would benefit writers, publishers, and readers alike.
—Katie Light


The negative
If the Fifty Shades books are responsible for the rising numbers, discount those numbers. Those books are dreck. And in any case, sales are one thing, but income for writers from those sales is another. To the extent that the numbers reflect Amazon's long tail, they don't help writers much. Mid-list advances and income are incontrovertibly down (although the long-tailers and mid-listers never made enough anyway). For readers, though, it's tough to complain.
—Mike Bryan

Except for the fact that writers are making far less than Esquire paid in the 1960s and '70s, this truly is a “golden age”—for publishers.
—David Kline

All that the Esquire piece seems to argue is that life's not so bad if you're Jonathan Franzen. If the author of the article had talked to more mid-listers or hopeful talents who can't get their first fiction placed among the Big Five, he might have reached a different conclusion.
—Mike Gural-Miaello

Sure! Golden age! Unless you're interested in pesky things like, oh, getting paid. And I would point to Esquire's own website, where they pay a WalMart-like $150 for a 1,000-word piece. Where do I apply for food stamps again?
—Allen St. John


What do you think of our writers' conclusions? Tell us in the comments. And by all means, keep writing!

Around the Word

Crisis of Creativity or Just History Repeating? With the Jonah Lehrer scandal in full swing, a summer during which the box office has been almost nothing but remakes and sequels, knock-off ebooks, and a unparalleled literary phenom that could be flirting with copyright infringement, it's hard not to ask whether there are any original ideas left to be had. Animator and filmmaker Drew Christie explores this conundrum in a recent NY Times op-doc, "Allergy to Originality." Through a very creative use of various Wikipedia entries (solidly in the Creative Commons), the animated video explores the age-old question of whether a idea can ever be truly unique, or if everything is just an appropriation or amalgamation of previous cultural memes and icons. Is it really Hollywood's fault that we seem to find comfort in reworkings and extensions of the familiar (reflected in booming box office sales)? What do you think? Are there any original thoughts left to be thought?

Before They Were Stars. Ever wondered what your favorite celebrity New York Times columnists were up to before they were granted tenure and guaranteed precious column inches to fritter away? Most of them were actually out chasing down leads and risking their jobs in pursuit of the story. In this great article from The Awl, we learn that before Nicholas Kristoff got a little "White Man's Burden," he gave us stories about the people in crisis instead of preaching to them. Tom Friedman was on the ground in Beirut, and Maureen Dowd, now best known for her politics-lite repartee, authored one of the first long-form pieces to shed light on those in the shadows of the AIDS epidemic. While not heralded far and wide, Dowd's profile of Gay Men's Health Crisis challenged some of the more traditional views held by Times editorial staff, and almost cost her the job. 

The Book Critic's Burden. It happens to all heavy readers at one time or another: you start a book and then realize you're just not feeling it. Most of us ditch it in favor of something more enticing, but what if your job depends on powering through? Getting paid to read and review books may seem like a charmed life, but a reviewer has to read them all—the good, mediocre, and the painfully bad. What's a critic to do? In a recent column, "I Hate This Book So Much: A Mediation," Times book critic Lev Grossman discusses the anxiety and inner conflict he faces when he has to review a book he dislikes. Should he dig in and write that negative review? What if he's missing a point that's obvious to everyone else? How does he face someone whose novel he's dissed? It's a a heavy cross to bear. How do you, dear editors and writers, deal with a despised project?

Of Books and Booze. Writers are notorious drinkers, perhaps none more so than Earnest Hemingway. Did you know that one of Hemingway's favorite drinks was the daiquiri? That may seem a little incongruous with his "man's man" image, but apparently he developed a taste for them during the twenty years he spent in Cuba. So to commemorate his 113th birthday, Havana watering hole El Floridita decided to mix up the world's largest daiquiri in honor of the author's love for the drink and his ties to the island. If you want to pay homage to your favorite author through drink, or make your next cocktail hour a little more literate, here are a few sites that offer authors' favorite cocktails, drinks inspired by books and authors, and drinks from classic literature. If going out is more your style, check out the The Dead Poet on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which is owned by a former English teacher and features an actual lending library.